Answers

I think you get a better crop if grown in the ground but grow bags are easy to harvest from, no need to dig.You can grope about in the bag and pull out what you need but would need to pick the whole shaw if grown in the ground.

If you don't have any garden then growing potatoes in bags is feasable. However, we tried growing in bags and growing in the ground last year and the bags produced a very meagre crop compared with the ground; I would not use this method again.

I grow all of my potatoes in bags and containers and have had variable sized crops depending on the variety. Last year Arran Victory was my best cropper. A friend grows Pentland Javelin and swears by it for pot culture. It is very much a trial and error project and of course you do need to make sure you do water your pots/bags. I have never used grow bags lying flat I always stand them on end. When I see gardening programmes showing three seed being planted in a grow bag I do wonder how on earth they achieve the crops they do. This year for the first time I will grow my microtuber heritage varieties in flat grow bags and will be documenting progress very carefully.

You have plenty of time to plant this year. It has been too cold to plant as yet. You can buy a pack of 5 in many shops still. Better to buy fresh seed because rejects from the kitchen might disappoint. Choose a first early if possible eg swift or rocket. They will grow very quickly. Swift is 7 weeks minimum from planting to eating but depending on the weather it could be 10 weeks. Good luck.

Oh Charlotte you are learning "gardening speak" now. When I first started using my computer, instuctions seemed to be in a foreign language. Your mums potatoes will have "sprouted". To get ahead we gardeners are a crafty lot. We set our seed potatoes (that is a normal potato about the size of a medium egg) out in egg boxes at any time from January onwards, to grow sprouts (little shoots). "Chitting" is another term you will hear being used. When the weather gets better we plant them either in the ground or in grow bags or other containers. We bury them about 4" (10cm) below the surface covering those shoots at that depth. Some people plant on Good Friday others at different times. You can plant until May or June depending on the state of your potatoes. They should still be firm and preferably have two or three sprouts about an inch long. Rub off extra shoots, you will get bigger potatoes with only three shoots. I use a grow bag on end. I have about 8-10" of compost in it and plant my potato in that. I roll the excess bag down to allow the light to see the soil (compost). Unroll the bag as the plant stems grow and almost cover them with soil. Keep doing that until you run out of bag then sit back and wait for your potato harvest. They will need water. Stab the bag at the bottom to allow excess water to escape in case it is as wet as last year. If there are no shoots do not worry all varieties do not send out shoots. Seed potatoes are grown by the supplier to produce healthy disease free seed. If you click on my name you will go to my home page. click on my photos. My seed potatoes are on the top row sitting in egg boxes in the coolest place in the house. Happy Easter.